Isobel Flemming
Isobel Flemming was the wife of Alaric Saltzman and the biological mother of Elena Gilbert, whom she had in her teens with John Gilbert. As per her request, she was turned into a vampire by Damon Salvatore and worked with her vampire ancestor, Katherine Pierce, but secretly protected her daughter. She later committed suicide by walking into the sun. This character is a relative of the Gilbert Family and a member of the Petrova Family. Early Life Isobel Flemming was born on January 18, 1976. She was raised in a small town near Mystic Falls and spent much time there when she was young. As a teenager, she met John Gilbert and the two began dating. Although John ended up falling in love with Isobel, she never fell in love with him. It was John who first told Isobel about the vampires and the supernatural. Isobel became deeply curious about them and this would later motivate her life's work to prove their existence. It was also John who made Isobel become pregnant with their child. Isobel was sixteen at the time and had run away from home. John brought her to his brother's office for the delivery and Grayson delivered a baby girl, Elena. Isobel was heartbroken to give up her daughter but did so anyway, knowing that she would have a better life with Grayson and his wife Miranda. Isobel would always dream that she would one day be able to meet her daughter and tell her who she was. Isobel later attended Duke University where she studied folklore and parapsychology. She also met her future husband, Alaric Saltzman, during this time. Isobel later earned her degree and started teaching at Duke where she had Vanessa Monroe as a student. Isobel's devotion to her work led Vanessa to go into folklore full time. Isobel soon became an expert researcher and started to research many aspects of supernatural lore such as vampires but also werewolves and doppelgangers. She discovered the existence of the curse of the Sun and the Moon which supposedly made vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the Moon. Isobel was later killed and turned by Damon Salvatore, the police couldn't find her body and she was assumed dead. It is later revealed that she had a romantic relationship with Damon before she was turned, and after that she met Katherine Pierce. When asked how Isobel found Katherine, she says that it was Katherine who found Isobel, but later Katherine states that it was really Isobel who found Katherine (most likely the latter being true). The two then became close and surprisingly genuine friends. Season One confirmed that he indeed killed her, but also turned her into a vampire. Damon had said that she begged for him to turn her, and because he liked her so he did. Later in the same episode, Elena dialed her number and Isobel picked up but she hung up after she heard Elena's voice. When John Gilbert came back to town, he told Damon that he sent her to him, but he didn't know that she wanted to become a vampire. She later showed up at the Mystic Grill and greeted her former husband. After returning to Mystic Falls, she wanted to meet her daughter Elena Gilbert, and threatened to kill everyone in town if she didn't get her way. Her actions made it seem like she did not care about her daughter, husband, or the town. Isobel wanted the device, because wanted all the tomb vampires dead. She used two minions, Cherie and Frank, to help her while she was in town. John came to visit her in her loaned house and was shown to also want the device. Since all John's attempts had failed, Isobel had a talk with Elena, to try to get the invention from Damon. When they met up and Elena asked her about Katherine, she remarked, "You look just like her.. it's eerie." Isobel shown that she could hurt Elena's family and friends by using Cherie and Frank to injure and also got one of them to kidnap . Elena convinced to give it to her when she said that could take off the spell. Bonnie only pretended to dispel it, and afterwards Elena met up with Isobel and gave her the device. Although cold at times, after a phone conversation with John Gilbert, it was shown that Isobel did care about her daughter. Their phone conversation also revealed that John Gilbert was 's biological father. She plotted with John Gilbert to kill all of the Tomb vampires in Mystic Falls and managed to do just that. (It was later revealed in the Season two episode Know Thy Enemy that she did this to keep Klaus from learning that the Petrova Doppelgänger (Elena) was alive in Mystic Falls.) Katherine Pierce, her best friend, helped her because she also wanted all the tomb vampires dead because centuries before she was the Petrova Doppelgänger and deliberately became a vampire to render herself useless to Klaus. Working in common clause Katherine helped Isobel destroy the tomb vampires to keep it from being discovered by Klaus that she is alive and wreck vengeance on her for the betrayal. Before Isobel left town, she compelled , her former husband, to finally get over her, showing that she still did have some good in her, and told him that she realized it was a mistake to turn into a vampire. Later in season two she would demonstrate that remorse. Season Two Alaric, Elena and Damon went to her office in Duke looking for information about werewolves and met Isobel's assistant Vanessa. There they learned about the sun and moon curse and Elena, helped by Damon, unearthed a book about the Petrova family, later revealed to be Katherine's family. Later, Katherine told Stefan to use Isobel to find as she is an expert researcher. According to the words of John, in the episode Daddy Issues, Isobel is aware of the situation of Katherine, Elena and The Originals, and she is working on something that would keep the Originals away forever. John and Isobel seem to want to make a deal with Katherine. She finally comes back at the end of The House Guest where she introduces herself to as Elena's mother. Elena refuses to invite Isobel into the house and slams the door in her face. John however trusted Isobel and invited her in the next day. Isobel proposed a solution to protect Elena by taking her a safe location, but Elena responded by telling her to get out of the house. Isobel is later shown to be working with Katherine after she found Klaus and made a deal for Katherine's freedom which involved returning the moonstone and live doppelganger. It was also revealed that she had asked John to make Jenna and Alaric break up since she was jealous of Alaric dating another woman. However, it was revealed that Isobel had been compelled by Klaus to devise a plan to capture Katherine and retrieve the moonstone which panned out successfully. Klaus had also compelled her to capture earlier which was also successful. Isobel then took Elena to a graveyard where Isobel's parents had placed a tombstone for her. Isobel explains to Elena that as a human she dreamed of meeting her daughter, but instead she met the other part, the part that would betray her own flesh and blood. Isobel receives a phone call from Maddox who tells her to set Elena free, then finishing her compulsion by exposing herself to sunlight. Isobel burns to death while Elena watches in horror. Season Three In Ghost World, Anna says that she thinks that some supernatural beings find peace after their death and that they don't go to The Other Side. Since Isobel hasn't appeared as a ghost, she most likely did find peace. Relationships Elena Gilbert Isobel never knew her daughter Elena until 17 years after she was born. Isobel got pregna nt with Elena as a teenager by a man named John Gilbert. Isobel had the baby delivered under the care of Grayson Gilbert and she soon fled. Though not revealed until the time of her death, Isobel always dreamed of the day when she would know her daughter. The revelation visibly shocks Elena who had always thought of Isobel as a cold, selfish woman. It is presumed that John and Isobel's relationship did not last long after Elena was born. Isobel moved on and married history teacher, Alaric Saltzman. She never told Alaric she had a daughter out of wedlock and when Alaric did find out, he was upset. When Isobel did finally meet her daughter, the talk was anything but a nice reunion. Isobel threatened Elena to bring her John Gilbert's invention and also threatened her friends and family. Isobel was shown to have some concern for Elena when she warned her that as long as she was dating a Salvatore brother, she would be doomed and that Katherine was smart to get out when she did. She also was the first one to tell Elena straight out that Damon loved her. Isobel is not shown again until the middle of season 2 when she returns. She is compelled to kidnap Elena and takes her to her grave. Isobel fondly remembers her parents and how much they still miss her. She apologizes to Elena for being "such a disappointment" and tells her that her human self was buried there, and the part that dreamed of someday knowing her daughter. She told Elena that instead of meeting her human self, she got to meet her other side. She says that Elena got to meet the person that would betray her own flesh and blood. Elena looks at her in shock and shortly after this, Isobel killed herself by ripping off her necklace which was full of the enchantment to protect vampires in the sunlight. Katherine Pierce Katherine and Isobel were shown to have somewhat close relationship after seeing each other and embracing each other fondly. The extent of her relationship with Katherine is unknown other than the fact that she and John might have been working on a deal with her. Powers and Abilities Some of these powers are more potent when the vampire gets older and feeds on human blood. *'Super Strength' - Vampires are much stronger than humans and grow stronger with time. Even new vampires who are still in transition can toss a fully grown human across a room with great speed and force. Their strength is also more powerful then werewolves that are not in wolf form. *'Super Speed' - Vampires can accelerate their movements to cover short distances in an instant, faster than the human eye can see. When running across long distances, they appear as vibrating blurs of motion. *'Emotional Control' - The supernatural ability to control and manipulate the emotions of one's self. *'Heightened Senses' - They can hear whispered conversations, even ones in far off buildings, smell blood, and see in total darkness. *'Mind Compulsion' - Vampires have the ability to control minds, plague people's dreams, and alter/erase human memories. *'Immortality' - A vampire stops aging once turned. Upon their transformation, vampires then on become immune to all conventional illness, disease, virus and infection. The only known disease or infection that can kill a vampire is a werewolf bite. *'Healing Factor' - Vampires can snap their finger bones back into place after being broken and have been seen to fully recover from gunshots, stab wounds, and torso impalement. *'Lapis Lazuli' - She possessed a Lapis Lazuli necklace that enabled her to walk in daylight without being harmed. Weaknesses *'Vervain' - When ingested, vervain causes a vampire to become severely weak and feverish. Also, If a vampire's skin is exposed to vervain, it can result in burning them. *'Wood' - If a vampire is wounded by wood it will cause the vampire to become severely weak and if a vampire takes a wooden stake through its heart it will result in death. *'Fire or Sunlight' - Any exposure to fire or sunlight will result in death to a vampire. *'Heart Extraction' - The act of removing a vampire's heart will result in death. *'Werewolf Bite' - The bite of a werewolf is extremely lethal to normal vampires. *'Magic' - Witches are able to give supernatural aneurysms that cause the blood vessels of vampires to explode. *'Decapitation' - The act of dismembering or removing the head of a vampire will result in death. *'Uninvited Invitation' - Vampires cannot enter a house without being invited in. If they are in the house without being invited in they will become disoriented. *'Vampire bloodline' - Vampires who were turned by an original who turned others will die if the original is staked by the white oak stake. Personality She views humans at the most a means to an end to her; a source of food, entertainment (including sexual), puppets to be robbed of their free will using them as "muscle" against other humans if she wish not to condescend to do it herself. She has no compassion, even colder than Damon and has no compunction in programming a human as a messenger boy and having him kill himself after the message is delivered. She feels absolutely no guilt in killing and feeding, voluntarily "turning off" any such evidence of conscience however the switch is a myth and will fade out sooner or later. It is only with her daughter and former husband does she display any affection in any form and it is often fleeting. However, she worries about Elena's relationship with Stefan and can see how Damon is attracted to her daughter. She shows she never stopped loving her daughter despite becoming a vampire apparently not caring for human life. She lamented how things turned out and demonstrated this by committing suicide by exposing herself to the sun. Isobel is also an expert researcher who usually finds what she wants. Amongst her significant finds, she found Damon Salvatore and Katherine Pierce. She also managed to find Klaus although he had become so reclusive that many believed him to be a mere legend. Despite this, even Isobel's considerable skills didn't allow her to get to Klaus himself. She managed to track a member of his inner circle which later led to Klaus setting a trap for Katherine. Gallery IsobelLicense.png|Isobel's license. Isobelpicture.jpg|A picture of Isobel. Isobelbed.jpg|Isobel is first seen. Isobelexplaining.jpg|Isobel tells Alaric about vampires. Vampire_isobel.jpg|Isobel working on her computer. Trudie_isobel.jpg|A picture of Isobel and her old friend Trudie Peterson when she was human. DTVD-121-0103 - Kopie.jpg|Isobel with her vampire face. vampirediaries121_0248.jpg|Isobel is coming back to Mystic Falls. i.jpg Isobel_and_kat.png|Isobel and Katherine in Know Thy Enemy Kte002.jpg Kte001.jpg Isobelgrave.png|Her human grave normal_21.jpg 587458.jpg 93992fac00087c454e4bb943.jpg isobel-flemming-saltzman.jpg MV5BMTI4Mjg5NDAyOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjYyNDI0Mw@@._V1._SX500_SY333_.jpg MV5BMTQ4Mzc5NDUxMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjcyNDI0Mw@@._V1._SX500_SY353_.jpg normal_tvd115003.jpg tumblr_l9olga08HX1qzu7xbo1_500.png tumblr_ljbe6w4TZk1qfha26o1_500.gif tumblr_ljedixZH2j1qfha26o1_500.gif tumblr_ljej7mE4uq1qc0fwzo1_500.gif tumblr_lsaf39b8bu1r1bfaeo1_400.gif tumblr_lsyzxddBsQ1qj7hvgo1_500.gif 38416260.png 20110408184005!Isobel_Flemming.jpg isobel attacks john.jpg|Isobel bites John Gilbert imagessaltzamanisobel.jpg isobeldeath.jpg isobelquote.png isobelsaltzmanflemming.jpg jenna-alaric-isobel.jpg tumblr_lkmruv41aH1qg9cowo1_500.gif Isobel fangs.jpg VD_Isobel_Damon.jpg|Isobel and Damon tumblr_m4oc5k6dnT1rwhokgo1_500.gif Trivia * Kevin Williamson originally wanted Neve Campbell for the role of Isobel. Kevin had previously worked with Neve on "Scream" in 1996. * Jenna states in A Few Good Men that Isobel was sixteen when she had Elena. However, given Isobel's birth year on her tombstone (1978), Elena would have been born in 1994. This is false, since Elena was 17 years old in 2009, implying that she was born in 1992. * Isobel, Katherine Pierce, Rose and Klaus are the only characters thus far to have an episode named after them. Isobel was the first to have it and the second (after Rose) to die. The three women all had a sexual relationship with Damon Salvatore and Klaus tried to kill Damon. * Like her ancestor Katherine she had a baby as a teenager that was given away. Given the fact that Isobel finds her daughter Elena, it is unknown if Katherine went looking for her daughter. * Isobel is considered to be an expert researcher by Katherine and Alaric. * In the episode'' Isobel, Isobel says that Katherine found her, but in the episode ''By the Light of the Moon, Katherine says Isobel found her. Which is quite a confusion, but it is more likely that Isobel lied, she being the one who found Katherine. * Isobel made two surprise appearances at the end of an episode (first Blood Brothers, then The House Guest), which is was followed by an episode in which she plays a major role (first Isobel, then Know Thy Enemy). * Isobel does not show affection or love as a mother to Elena in the first season, but she reveals her true feelings in the second season right before she dies. * She is the first and currently only vampire seen to actually die from sun exposure. * Isobel Flemming and Jenna Sommers were lovers of Alaric Saltzman and both were destroyed by Niklaus. *Like Isobel, Elena become vampire end of season finale of 3. Appearances Season 1 * Bloodlines (flashback) * A Few Good Men (flashback) * Blood Brothers (brief appearance) * Isobel Season 2 * The House Guest (brief appearance, uncredited) * Know Thy Enemy Category:Vampire Diaries Characters Category:Vampires Category:Supernatural Category:Antagonists Category:Recurring Characters Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Season 2 Characters Category:Petrova Family Category:Deceased Category:Mystic Falls Residents